Traditionally, distributed information management has been based on sets of rules or policies which are predetermined by benchmarking and testing. These techniques may provide useful and accurate results when the architecture of a distributed information system is static. However, such solutions to distributed information management problems can generate non-optimal results when applied to dynamically changing environments, such as smart spaces.
Modem device usage is moving towards implementation in smart spaces. A smart space may be an environment where a number of devices may use a shared view of resources and services. In this regard, smart spaces can provide improved user experiences by allowing users to flexibly introduce new devices and access most or all of the information available in the multiple device system from any of the devices. However, a problem with information management in smart spaces can be that the location of desired information is not static. As a result, difficulties can arise in predicting the most efficient paths to access data included in the devices of the smart space.
Smart spaces often include the concept of a central repository of information, also known as a whiteboard. The whiteboard can be considered as a storage element to which every device or node in a smart space has access. Logically, only one whiteboard exists in a smart space and hence every device has access to the very same information. However, the whiteboard is merely a logical concept, and in reality the whiteboard may be comprised of a multitude of partial physical data repositories.
A challenge in providing consistent information management in a smart space is that the resources (e.g., the storage components comprising the whiteboard) are distributed over several physical devices, and as a result, the information consumers are not always in, or part of the same device as the desired information. For example, a number of content capturing devices (e.g., cameras, microphones, etc.) may provide information, while other content rendering devices (e.g., displays, speakers, etc.) may retrieve the information for presentation.
A trivial means for managing the information in these dynamic environments such that any device may readily retrieve desired information could be to copy all information to all devices. However, such a solution is typically unfeasible because some devices may have limited capabilities (e.g., storage space, computation abilities, etc.) and the cost (e.g. power consumption, impact to performance, etc.) of transferring all information over a communication channel to all devices may be excessive. Further, the dynamic architecture of the smart space also makes it difficult to guarantee that all the information will reach every device.